Bruegel’s The Tower of Babel tells the biblical tale of how God made the Babylonians speak in many different languages as punishment for their arrogance. This made it impossible for the people to communicate. Vox Luminis and Arnaud Van de Cauter use Bruegel’s masterpiece as a point of departure for this concert programme. In the first section, they accentuate the confusion of the Babylonian people with the aid of complex pieces by Palestrina and Lassus. Next, Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli offers a solution to this Babylonian confusion of tongues. Transparency and simplicity are foremost in this mass, which Palestrina wrote in the aftermath of the Council of Trent.

Did you know?

450 years have passed since the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. BOZAR twice pays musical tribute to the artist, based on his paintings and the music of his world, during the month in which he died and on the spot where he lies buried.